What have you been up to lately?
- Ylem
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 7592
- Joined: Sun May 12, 2019 2:54 am
- 4
- Location: Ocean County, New Jersey
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Photo of the Day
Re: What have you been up to lately?
-Jeff
Member; ASTRA-NJ
Orion 80ED
Celestron C5, 6SE, Celestar 8
Vixen Porta Mount ll
Coronado PST
A big box of Plossls
Little box of filters
- a100171
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 157
- Joined: Sat May 25, 2019 11:36 pm
- 4
- Location: Mont Vernon, NH
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Photo of the Day
Re: What have you been up to lately?
After some quite successful imaging exercises, it was abundantly clear that I had to fix some things. The guiding all worked quite well, as did image capture.
Behind the scenes, an IBM T43 was running PHD2 on WinXP. The
Both
I don't know if anyone has ever seen those very-inexpensive Spot Welder tools (mine was around $50 when I got it), but I was dying to try this out. After a few practice attempts, I was able to re-affix the assembly using a combination of the old strips and a strip of the supplied Nickel strip material. I could not believe how well it worked. These were replacement "flat-top" cells, and they were a perfect fit. The partially re-assembled battery is getting epoxied back together at a few places. It cot pretty hemmed-up during disassembly.
If I had known this bad-boy worked this well, I would not have purchased the replacement
Will work on the T510 that I use for the video capture portion, running either BackYard EOS for the Canon T3i, or ASI Studio for the other cameras. That battery is dead as a door nail.
BTW, saving all my money for Dirt! Spring will mean finally having at least some of the yard to observatory-appropriate levels.
Hyperstar for EdgeHD, ZWO and Celestron Nightscape CCD. A fully-functional Meade 12" RCX-400.
- GCoyote
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 2709
- Joined: Mon May 13, 2019 2:53 am
- 4
- Location: Laurel, MD, USA
- Status:
Offline
Re: What have you been up to lately?
.
.
Gary C
Celestron Astro Master 130mm f5 Newtonian GEM
Meade 114-EQ-DH f7.9 Newtonian w/ manual GEM
Bushnell 90mm f13.9 Catadioptric
Gskyer 80mm f5 Alt/Az refractor
Jason 10x50 Binoculars
Celestron 7x50 Binoculars
Svbony 2.1x42 Binoculars
(And a bunch of stuff I'm still trying to fix or find parts for.)
- Butterfly Maiden
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 2662
- Joined: Mon May 11, 2020 8:32 pm
- 3
- Location: New Forest, Hampshire, UK
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Photo of the Day
Re: What have you been up to lately?
Did you enjoy it Gary?
We have only ever tried mead once, and found it to be very sweet - sickly sweet actually, so we haven't bothered with it since.
Nikon D82 Fieldscope with 30x/45x/56x angled eyepiece.
Olympus DPS-1 10x50 binoculars.
Leica 8x32BN binoculars.
- GCoyote
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 2709
- Joined: Mon May 13, 2019 2:53 am
- 4
- Location: Laurel, MD, USA
- Status:
Offline
Re: What have you been up to lately?
Gary C
Celestron Astro Master 130mm f5 Newtonian GEM
Meade 114-EQ-DH f7.9 Newtonian w/ manual GEM
Bushnell 90mm f13.9 Catadioptric
Gskyer 80mm f5 Alt/Az refractor
Jason 10x50 Binoculars
Celestron 7x50 Binoculars
Svbony 2.1x42 Binoculars
(And a bunch of stuff I'm still trying to fix or find parts for.)
- pakarinen
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 4037
- Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2019 3:33 pm
- 4
- Location: NE Illinois
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Awards Badges
Re: What have you been up to lately?
If I think about it, I really don't need all the features on SS+ like crosshairs and orbits and whatever since I no longer connect to a scope. Free Stellarium gives a very nice sky map IMO and realtime
The question is how accurate the Stellarium coords are. That'll have to wait a few days as it's overcast and up to 10 inches of snow is forecast for tomorrow.
Man... That's some icky-tasting stuff!
=============================================================================
AT50, AT72EDII, ST80, ST102; Scopetech Zero, AZ-GTi, AZ Pronto; Innorel RT90C, Oberwerk 5000; Orion Giantview 15x70s, Vortex 8x42s, Navy surplus 7x50s, Nikon 10x50s
- helicon Online
- Co-Administrator
- Articles: 596
- Posts: 12404
- Joined: Mon May 06, 2019 1:35 pm
- 5
- Location: Washington
- Status:
Online
-
TSS Awards Badges
Re: What have you been up to lately?
I'm heading out to the podiatrist to try to figure out what's going on with my feet. Discomfort while walking. Age related degeneration I guess.
Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope
Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50
Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl
Camera: ZWO ASI 120
Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs
Latitude: 48.7229° N
- Makuser
- In Memory
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 6394
- Joined: Mon May 06, 2019 12:53 am
- 5
- Location: Rockledge, FL.
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Photo of the Day
TSS Awards Badges
Re: What have you been up to lately?
Sky-Watcher 90mm f/13.8 Maksutov-Cassegrain on motorized Multimount
Orion Astroview 120ST f/5 Refractor on EQ3 mount
Celestron Comet Catcher 140mm f/3.64 Schmidt-Newtonian on alt-az mount
Celestron Omni XLT150R f/5 Refractor on CG4 mount with dual axis drives.
Orion 180mm f/15 Maksutov-Cassegrain on CG5-GT Goto mount.
Orion XT12i 12" f/4.9 Dobsonian Intelliscope.
Kamakura 7x35 Binoculars and Celestron SkyMaster 15x70 Binoculars. ZWO ASI 120MC camera.
>)))))*>
- Ylem
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 7592
- Joined: Sun May 12, 2019 2:54 am
- 4
- Location: Ocean County, New Jersey
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Photo of the Day
Re: What have you been up to lately?
Romarin et sei de mer!
Now I just need some Montreal smoked meat
-Jeff
Member; ASTRA-NJ
Orion 80ED
Celestron C5, 6SE, Celestar 8
Vixen Porta Mount ll
Coronado PST
A big box of Plossls
Little box of filters
- SkyHiker
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 2293
- Joined: Sat May 11, 2019 8:40 pm
- 4
- Location: Santa Barbara, CA
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Photo of the Day
TSS Awards Badges
Re: What have you been up to lately?
I also ordered a 4-bay Synology server with 3 4-TB hard disks. I want to set up 2 of them as RAID, and the 3rd one as backup disk, also for some of the RAID data. I may add a 4th disk later on. Should be good for setting up SVN, VPN, cloud, backup, encryption, file server, and a lot more. I used one at work and found it very convenient to configure, it worked flawlessly. I want something better than just a laptop with a backup disk.
Both should be here this afternoon.
- Frankskywatcher
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 950
- Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:30 pm
- 2
- Location: Conway South Carolina USA
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Awards Badges
Re: What have you been up to lately?
This is quite the tail so you might want to get a cool drink and sit down. Lol.
There were two dogs that were being neglected.
They were in a junkyard that was out in the middle of nowhere in the woods in rural South Carolina.
The owner of the junkyard had them both chained to empty, huge water containers that you see on the back of flatbed trucks with just a cut out with a way for them to get in there.
The problem was this horrible human being would leave these dogs for days at a time with no water, no food the whole place would get flooded out when it rained , the dog houses would be all wet inside and they would be in standing water.
So this woman that I know through social media, who actually I met thru one of my rescued dogs one of the two hound dogs that I have I rescued thru her
So anyway, this woman told the guy that owns the junkyard “you need to surrender the dogs to me before the authorities come down on you “as a veiled threat.
What does idiot do he hemmed and hawed but she finally convinced him to surrender the dogs to him.
So we to constructed a Portable chain-link 10’ x 12’ pen for both of them.
That was a few weeks ago but my neighbor who I helped him build a huge pole barn had a lot of leftover lumber and let me take whatever I needed .
So we went back today to her home, which is about half an hour from where I live out the country and we constructed roofing to keep them both out of the sun, rain in the elements.
I started a Go fund me page off of the blog that I have for the two rescued hound dogs @ daily dose of Daisy Mae & Beautiful Bella on Facebook.
The fund me drive on and my dogs blog generated $475 today for these two dogs, food and medical expenses going forward!
So I’m closing today was a dog day for me, but it was worth it!
Equipment :
Apertura AD10” Dobsonian
Polaris 4” Dobsonian
7x50 binoculars
- DeanD
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 666
- Joined: Fri May 17, 2019 7:27 am
- 4
- Location: Adelaide South Australia
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Awards Badges
Re: What have you been up to lately?
Lots of new words and acronyms for me here!SkyHiker wrote: ↑Thu Mar 02, 2023 11:31 pm I ordered an Ooma box as a Wifi-based telephone after I had to return my work cell phone. Curious how that works. I may get a cell phone later to replace the one I had for work that I returned.
I also ordered a 4-bay Synology server with 3 4-TB hard disks. I want to set up 2 of them as RAID, and the 3rd one as backup disk, also for some of the RAID data. I may add a 4th disk later on. Should be good for setting up SVN, VPN, cloud, backup, encryption, file server, and a lot more. I used one at work and found it very convenient to configure, it worked flawlessly. I want something better than just a laptop with a backup disk.
Both should be here this afternoon.
I had to look up "Ooma box", "Synology server", "RAID" and "SVN" so I am bit the wiser now.
I even found out the difference between "SVN" and "Git" (although I am not much the wiser there!)
At least I did know what the other words mean...
I'll go back to my cave now.
Have fun with all that data!
All the best,
Dean
Binos: Steiner Wildlife XP 10x26, Swarovski 8x30 Habicht, Zeiss SFL 8x40, Vanguard Endeavour 10.5x45, Fuji FMTR-SX 10x50, Tak 22x60, Orion Resolux 15x70
Eyepieces: way too many (is that possible?), but I do like my TV 32mm plossl, 13mm Nagler T6, 27mm Panoptic and 3-6mm Nagler zoom, plus Fujiyama 18mm and 25mm orthos and Tak 7.5mm LE
- Butterfly Maiden
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 2662
- Joined: Mon May 11, 2020 8:32 pm
- 3
- Location: New Forest, Hampshire, UK
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Photo of the Day
Re: What have you been up to lately?
It always angers me when I read of tales where animals of any kind have been mistreated.
This one had a happy outcome thanks to you (with help from the other lady), so I am proud of you for doing that
Nikon D82 Fieldscope with 30x/45x/56x angled eyepiece.
Olympus DPS-1 10x50 binoculars.
Leica 8x32BN binoculars.
- Butterfly Maiden
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 2662
- Joined: Mon May 11, 2020 8:32 pm
- 3
- Location: New Forest, Hampshire, UK
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Photo of the Day
Re: What have you been up to lately?
I hope it all works well for you anyway.
Nikon D82 Fieldscope with 30x/45x/56x angled eyepiece.
Olympus DPS-1 10x50 binoculars.
Leica 8x32BN binoculars.
- SkyHiker
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 2293
- Joined: Sat May 11, 2019 8:40 pm
- 4
- Location: Santa Barbara, CA
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Photo of the Day
TSS Awards Badges
Re: What have you been up to lately?
Let me explain it a bit more then. it may sound nerdy, but it is really pretty common for software developers, and many non-developers too, I think, so to those, skip the rest of this message.Butterfly Maiden wrote: ↑Fri Mar 03, 2023 7:12 am @SkyHiker Henk, just as Dean mentioned, I don't have a clue what all that computer terminology meant
I am not a fan of cell phones and, since with my retirement I lost my cell phone that was provided by work, would not mind having a land line instead. Ooma is a VOIP system (Voice Over IP, IP=Internet Protocol) that lets you set up a phone number and comes with an
The Synology server (that's just a brand name) is a NAS (Network Attached Storage) solution that comes with several utilities such as:
- SVN: I develop software, and SVN is a configuration management system that lets you browse the history of your code development and make file comparisons of different versions, manage custom derivatives (branches). It is indispensable for any software developer and should always run on a separate machine to ensure integrity. You will never have to fear losing anything you did in the past, so it offers a lot of freedom to develop new stuff and revert if it turns out to be no good.
- RAID: This protects against hardware failures by using multiple disks so that if one fails, the other one can correct it, automatically. I am currently on a 12-year-old Toshiba laptop and worry about disk failures. If I keep my important files on that RAID system, the chances of losing my files are a lot less.
- File server: I can store my files on that server and mount them on my other computers, Linux or Windows, as folders that can be accessed directly. This is also handy for making periodic backup over the network, since the server is always on, and I don't have to manually connect a backup disk.
- VPN: A Virtual Private Network, that can be used to access my network securely away from home if there is a need for it. That way I don't have to carry my laptop with me and still have access to my files and/or computers by cell phone or tablet.
- Cloud: This is makes it possible to access data that I want to share via web browsers, for instance photo series of hikes, or astronomy pictures. I could also set up a message board like
Hope this explains it. The server was about $300, the disks $60 each. There are other solutions for some of these features, but it is nice to have a single, central NAS system that is meant to provide this. It worked very well for the office.
We'll see. It will be useful in the long run.
- GCoyote
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 2709
- Joined: Mon May 13, 2019 2:53 am
- 4
- Location: Laurel, MD, USA
- Status:
Offline
Re: What have you been up to lately?
The idea of not having any moving parts to fail is very appealing to me.
Gary C
Celestron Astro Master 130mm f5 Newtonian GEM
Meade 114-EQ-DH f7.9 Newtonian w/ manual GEM
Bushnell 90mm f13.9 Catadioptric
Gskyer 80mm f5 Alt/Az refractor
Jason 10x50 Binoculars
Celestron 7x50 Binoculars
Svbony 2.1x42 Binoculars
(And a bunch of stuff I'm still trying to fix or find parts for.)
- Ylem
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 7592
- Joined: Sun May 12, 2019 2:54 am
- 4
- Location: Ocean County, New Jersey
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Photo of the Day
Re: What have you been up to lately?
What a heartwarming story!
-Jeff
Member; ASTRA-NJ
Orion 80ED
Celestron C5, 6SE, Celestar 8
Vixen Porta Mount ll
Coronado PST
A big box of Plossls
Little box of filters
- SkyHiker
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 2293
- Joined: Sat May 11, 2019 8:40 pm
- 4
- Location: Santa Barbara, CA
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Photo of the Day
TSS Awards Badges
Re: What have you been up to lately?
I have a 1 TB SSD on my laptop, but I am not convinced that it is a more robust storage than disks. I want this NAS for more reasons than just for backup. I also want it to be online not yet another device to carry with me. But thanks for the suggestion Gary!
- Juno16
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 8210
- Joined: Sun May 12, 2019 3:13 pm
- 4
- Location: Mississippi Gulf Coast
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Awards Badges
TSS Photo of the Day
Re: What have you been up to lately?
You are my kind of guy Frank!Frankskywatcher wrote: ↑Fri Mar 03, 2023 12:48 am I figured I would post in this section and let everyone know what I’ve been up to lately,
This is quite the tail so you might want to get a cool drink and sit down. Lol.
There were two dogs that were being neglected.
They were in a junkyard that was out in the middle of nowhere in the woods in rural South Carolina.
The owner of the junkyard had them both chained to empty, huge water containers that you see on the back of flatbed trucks with just a cut out with a way for them to get in there.
The problem was this horrible human being would leave these dogs for days at a time with no water, no food the whole place would get flooded out when it rained , the dog houses would be all wet inside and they would be in standing water.
So this woman that I know through social media, who actually I met thru one of my rescued dogs one of the two hound dogs that I have I rescued thru her
So anyway, this woman told the guy that owns the junkyard “you need to surrender the dogs to me before the authorities come down on you “as a veiled threat.
What does idiot do he hemmed and hawed but she finally convinced him to surrender the dogs to him.
So we to constructed a Portable chain-link 10’ x 12’ pen for both of them.
That was a few weeks ago but my neighbor who I helped him build a huge pole barn had a lot of leftover lumber and let me take whatever I needed .
So we went back today to her home, which is about half an hour from where I live out the country and we constructed roofing to keep them both out of the sun, rain in the elements.
I started a Go fund me page off of the blog that I have for the two rescued hound dogs @ daily dose of Daisy Mae & Beautiful Bella on Facebook.
The fund me drive on and my dogs blog generated $475 today for these two dogs, food and medical expenses going forward!
So I’m closing today was a dog day for me, but it was worth it!
PS I also included one picture of my two hound dogs. They were both skin and bone and dumped and hot. One positive when we rescued them the tri-colored one ( Daisy Mae)was so weak. It couldn’t get up on a her own for close to a week and the Redbone( Bella )was rescued from a cornfield where it had lived for three or four months as a puppy..
What you and your social media friend are wonderful folks!
To me, dogs are just special and even the ones with issues have an amazing sweet side. I know that this will sound strange to some folks, but I personally prefer dogs to lots of people.
I live in the south (Mississippi) and it is appalling how some people treat these sweet animals. It is not just MS, but other nearby southern states too. The shelters are overflowing!
I have fostered many dogs that have been abandoned or stray, that are cared for and sent north to well vetted new families. Dogs are great, but there are wonderful people out there too!
I was lucky to find my dog Jack at a shelter almost 6 years ago. He has given me so much in that time!
He has been having trouble walking recently, so I brought him in for evaluation earlier this week. Both of his hips are pretty bad (dyplaysia) and one knee needed surgery too (worse than the hips). I spent my astro budget (for quite some time) to have a TPLO surgery on his knee. I am very fortunate to have him and my wonderful wife (who was good with me spending the money for Jack's surgery).
He is the dog on the left in my avatar. A foster pup is on the right biting his tail.
You are a good man Frank. We need more folks like you!
Scopes: Explore Scientific ED102 APO, Sharpstar 61 EDPH II APO, Samyang 135 F2 (still on the Nikon).
Mount: Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro with Rowan Belt Mod
Stuff: ASI EAF Focus Motor (x2), ZWO OAG, ZWO 30 mm Guide Scope, ASI 220mm min, ASI 120mm mini, Stellarview 0.8 FR/FF, Sharpstar 0.8 FR/FF, Mele Overloock 3C.
Camera/Filters/Software: ASI 533 mc pro, ASI 120mm mini, ASI 220mm mini , IDAS LPS D-1, Optolong L-Enhance, ZWO UV/IR Cut, N.I.N.A., Green Swamp Server, PHD2, Adobe Photoshop CC, Pixinsight.
Dog and best bud: Jack
Sky: Bortle 6-7
My Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/users/Juno16/
- Frankskywatcher
- Articles: 0
- Posts: 950
- Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:30 pm
- 2
- Location: Conway South Carolina USA
- Status:
Offline
-
TSS Awards Badges
Re: What have you been up to lately?
Equipment :
Apertura AD10” Dobsonian
Polaris 4” Dobsonian
7x50 binoculars
Create an account or sign in to join the discussion
You need to be a member in order to post a reply
Create an account
Not a member? register to join our community
Members can start their own topics & subscribe to topics
It’s free and only takes a minute